WatchIt: A Hope for our Future

As someone who works with second graders every Sunday, has a 9 year old cousin, and wanted to be a pediatrician, I think it’s safe to say I like kids. And when people used to ask why I chose pediatrics, I would say that kids saw things from a unique and clever perspective and with that perspective they can create a better future; that because these kids were the future, we needed to take care of them. But it’s hard not to notice that these kids seriously lack imagination. I tell my Sunday school kids to “just pretend” and they don’t know what that means. They don’t listen in class, they don’t do their worksheets. They play with their kid Apple watch and take selfies on their parent’s old phones. And while none of these kids are at risk for childhood obesity, I think that WatchIt and its technology can still lend itself to fixing some of these problems. 

Kids don’t go out and play. They are consumed by screens and games. I see kids crying in restaurants and parents just hand them their phones. WatchIt not only encourages kids to play outside or participate in any other physical activity but also makes it fun and rewarding. I think the app is extremely clever to “lock” the most used apps. I also think it’s a good idea to have rewards (my kids are motivated every week to say their verse to try and win a prize).  I think that the kid friendly design is also a smart move. The more that the device and app feel and look like a game, the more kids are going to want to use it. I hope that parents would consider something like this for their kids and prioritize it more over video games and other types of games and toys that are not really constructive to their kids’ overall health.

It would be great if the technology of WatchIt could expand to getting kids to do their homework or chores as well. While I do believe technology is a helpful tool, I would not want my kids to be consumed by it or reliant on it. While my group was coming up with a project, we noticed that there were a lot of problems caused by technology so how could we solve it with technology? I think WatchIt does an excellent job of using a minimal amount of technology to get kids to be active and leave their screens for a brief amount of time.